A very unhappy dog
Shadow is a very unhappy dog. She wasn’t jumping around She wasn’t doing anything exciting, she simply got up and there it was, gone. She tore her cruciate ligament. That’s not great in any dog, but when you’ve already got some arthritis in the other hip and a bit of muscle atrophy through age and the fact exercising can hurt, it makes it very difficult. She is struggling to stand on three legs and certainly is in no shape to climb up stairs.
Lock Down and Us
The whole cruciate thing seems to go with lockdown in this house. In March lockdown came in and Ari needed cruciate surgery. In November lockdown came in and… you can see a pattern here. If I’m being honest Ari’s went before that, but conservative management had failed and he needed an operation then. Mum is very keen for conservative management to work for Shadow as with her being nearly twelve and an operation is more of a big deal. We have bought a knee brace for Shadow and some special supplements. They should all come today so we’re really hoping they help.
In the meantime
In the meantime Shadow is not happy. She is having to sleep on her own downstairs. She howled from four in the morning which meant we all had to be awake. Shadow is also only going out to the toilet so Mum has reduced her food. We’re having a big discussion about whether Mum is going to sleep downstairs. To be honest she’s not keen. It took her months to get her joints working properly again after three months sleeping on the chair in the lounge with Alfie and she really doesn’t want to do it again. There is room for a bed in Shadow’s room downstairs, but given we’re not having anyone else in the house Mum can’t actually carry a bed downstairs on her own. Maybe Shadow could just get used to it and stop howling so early.
Love
Wilma
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Oh my goodness, my poor Mum. Please send her my love. I hope the brace and supplements help. A lot of us are getting this problem. Is it because we react so quickly to noises and new things and twist awkwardly to stand from resting? At least we have a lovely sunny day here after all the rain and Dad is busy collecting all the fallen leaves. Mum is in charge of collecting acorns. We have 4 large oak trees in the garden so it is a never ending job. I am the supervisor! Lots of love to you all Dickens XXXXX
She is very grateful for your love, thank you. Yes we jump too much. We just can’t stop ourselves. Whatever are we going to do. If we moved more sedately, like a Labrador perhaps we wouldn’t do these things.
Good luck with your supervisory duties. I’ve just supervised feeding the Squirrels.
Love Wilma